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September 29, 2010

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The pro-Israel group AIPAC says a campaign ad from Rep. Joe Sestak that claims that, "According to AIPAC, Joe Sestak has a 100% pro-Israel voting record" is inaccurate.

The group, a spokesman said, does not not issue such evaluations.

"Joe Sestak does not have a 100% voting record on Israel issues according to AIPAC. It couldn't be true, we don't rate or endorse candidates," said AIPAC spokesman Josh Block of the ad, which ran in the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.

Sestak has faced repeated attacks over his stand on Israel since signing a January letter aimed at easing Israel's blockade of Gaza, though critics point more to letters and to sponsorship than to any votes that break with Congressional Democrats' generally pro-Israel party line. (There haven't been many actual difficult votes on the issue, one way or the other). And Sestak has sought in the past to associate himself with AIPAC.

"You look at my voting record and AIPAC says it’s perfect," he told the Orthodox Union earlier this month, according to video of the event. "There’s no letter that I ever sign or don’t sign that I don’t contact AIPAC

"That’s just the way it is, you know," he told the Jewish group. "My voting record is right down the line."

A prominent AIPAC supporter in Pennsylvania, who supports Sestak but wouldn't be quoted by name because he doesn't speak for the organization, said that while the ad was "technically" incorrect, it reflected the fact that Sestak has voted for foreign aid bills and for sanctions against Iran, the major legislation AIPAC lobbied for.

Sestak spokesman Jonathon Dworkin dismissed the issue as semantics, and attacked Republican candidate Pat Toomey for voting against aid to Israel in the context of votes against foreign aid more generally.

"In terms of supporting Israel, there’s a clear difference in this race between Joe Sestak who has voted every time in israel’s interest and his opponent, Congressman Toomey, who has time and again voted against important funding for Israel," he said.

The ad was paid for by "friends of Joe Sestak," a group of his Jewish supporters, but a legal legend says it was "authorized by Sestak for Senate."

But despite Sestak's protestations, major pro-Israel groups continue to view him with skepticism.

"There are serious concerns about Joe Sestak's record related to Israel throughout the pro-Israel community," said an official with a major pro-Israel organization in Washington. "Not only has he said that Chuck Hagel is the Senator he admires most, which is unusual enough, but when comes to actual decisions that have affected Israel and our relationship with them, he has gone the wrong way several times. It's the height of chutzpah for him to suggest he has a good record, let alone a 100 percent one, on these issues."

God bless the internet. If it wasn't for mediums like this, you would never hear it.
I think what Joe Sestak is trying to do is he's trying to give you reasons to vote him out of office. This is absolutely ridiculous. He asks AIPAC first? So if AIPAC says, give us your wife and children, he would do that too? What a disgusting excuse for a US senator. This guy needs to go.

AIPAC is out to crucify Sestak since he signed a January humanitarian letter aimed at easing Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza. Historically AIPAC boasts of defeating politicians who don't support every Israeli atrocity.

Let's be clear, Adm. Sestak was the candidate of the mostly Irish Catholic anti-semitic Leftists around Chris Matthews' two tv programs. That has given most of us Jewish Democrats who remember the anti-Semitic tones from the former Carter Administration clique, again, gathered around the two Chris Matthews and other MS NBC shows.

Lee Francis Chudson sounds like a typical Israel-Firster. Israel-Firsters are Americans who put the interests of Israel ahead of the interests of America. Here's how to spot them:
1. Their conditioned response to any criticism of Israeli policies is to cry out "anti-Semite!" or "self-hating Jew!"
2. They have an abject hatred for the United Nations because of such resolutions as UN Security Council Resolution 242, which calls for Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.
3. They hate the "O" word altogether, instead offering up such euphemistic pleasantries as "disputed" territories or even "war-won" territories.
4. They particularly avoid mentioning the Occupation when decrying actions by resistance groups such as Hamas, thus obscuring exactly what it is Hamas is resisting.
5. They shun international law, preferring Biblical law, as in "this land is our land because the Bible says so."
6. They allege we were hit on 9/11 because "Islamists want to spread their religion," hiding the fact that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said he hates us because of our foreign policy bias towards Israel. (See The 9/11 Commission Report page 147).
7. They insist Middle East peace is impossible, so don't bother trying. They enjoy the status quo.
8. But if we do try to make peace, we must not be even-handed, because that would be "anti-Israel."
9. They specialize in re-writing history portraying Israel as an innocent victim.
10. When confronted by proof of Israeli atrocities and war crimes, such as ethnic cleansing, apartheid conditions, collective punishment with white phosphorous, etc, they reflexively bellow "Remember the Holocaust!"
11. They are horrified at the concept of diplomacy and thus parrot their assertion that Muslims only respond to "shock and awe."
12. They are pushing America to go to war with the 57 nations that do not recognize Israel (because of Israel's illegal occupations). We are already fighting in at least five of them: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen. Iran is next on their wish list. They have no interest in preserving American blood or treasure: all must be sacrificed for Greater Israel (ie settlement expansion).

Eileen,
ONCE again you have the wrong party. IT is the WICKED WICKED far right who will do anything to get elected.
DID you happen to read the article about O'Kiffe????? JUST another typical repuke who will do anything to get his party in power.
AND DEAR EILEEN, have you taken notice of the repukes in congress, they would rather see this country FAIL than to help our wonderful president get things done!!!!
THAT, miss Eileen is typical of the repukes in this country!!!!
THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT themselves!!!!
President Obama wants to take this country FORWARD, and the repukes in Congress want to take it BACKWARDS!!!!!

Now this my friends is "fair and balanced." On the Right we have Eileen who is famous for her CAPS LOCK and !!!!! exclamations, and on the Left we have "sick of the party of NO" who is about to have !!!!!!!! an anurysm.

Stan,
Eileen and I may make a fair and balanced pair, but now you see that Faux Noise is NOT fair and balanced, because they would NEVER let anyone like me speak on their little cable station.
Faux Noise is UNFAIR and UNBALANCED!!!!

sick of the party of no @2:57 I don't know what station you're watching, but just this past week, O'Reilly interviewed Jon Stewart and then the next two days he interviewed Bill Maher. DeeDee Myers was on the same show that Maher was on. Now if you want to call any one of those people a far right wing nut job, go ahead. For balance, I switched over to MSNBC to see Rachel Madow, alone in the studio telling the camera that the Democrats NEEDED to run on Obama's record and beat the Republicans. You decide.....